Missing boy’s body found in pond near farm
LOWELL » The body of 3-year- old Harry Kkonde who went missing in Pawtucketville Tuesday morning was found in a pond near Rollie’s Farm Wednesday afternoon, authorities confirmed.
His body was recovered by the State Police Dive Team in 5-foot- deep water only 650 feet from his babysitter’s home on Freda Lane, where he was last seen, District Attorney Marian Ryan said at an afternoon press conference. Ryan noted that officials previously searched the pond and adjacent Rollie’s Farm around 11 a.m. Tuesday. Upon re- examining the area shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, law enforcement found the boy’s body.
Authorities are unsure how and when Harry reached the pond, because he was not there when the Lowell Fire Department made its initial search of the body of water. He was discovered in the clothes he was last seen in, Ryan said, and appears to have suffered no external trauma.
Ryan extended her condolences to the Kkonde family and said she is “grateful” to everyone who aided in the search.
“This is obviously every parent’s worst nightmare, a child who disappears for a very short period of time, the excruciating hours of the search and then the recovery of his body,” Ryan said. “This is clearly not the result that anyone over these many hours of search would have anticipated or wanted to have occur. … Our thoughts and hearts are with the family who lost this child.”
In total, the more than 200 first responders searched 4.7 square miles of land and water. Officials were seen searching under cars, in backyards and pools and elsewhere across surrounding neighborhoods.
Interim Lowell Police Superintendent Barry Golner, as well as Carlisle Police Chief and Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council Control Chief John Fisher and State Police Lt. Col. Scott Warmington, expressed their sympathy for Harry’s loved ones and their thanks to law enforcement.
Joe Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Field Office, said agencies across jurisdictions came together to form a sizable team to recover the missing child, dedicating more than 30 hours to the search that ended in grief.
“Whenever there is a missing child, it’s an allhands- on- deck af fair throughout local, state and federal law enforcement,” Bonavolonta said at the press conference. “Obviously, it was a tragic outcome here.”
Ryan said it was too soon to say whether the babysitter or anyone else close to the disappearance could face charges, and that law enforcement are considering any possible explanations, including possible foul play.
Investigators will await an evaluation from the medical examiner to indicate a cause and time of death.
“Everybody who’s ever had a toddler is in terror of that toddler wandering off,” Ryan said. “I think, taking that to heart, so many people came out last night, either to help in the search, to offer support to the folks who were searching.”